Kestrel Triple Feature Session 1

run by mel duncan

Kestrel Triple Feature

Written by Tony Mitton and AJ Smith
GM’d by Mel Duncan & Courtney Parnell

This is a trilogy of parlour games (with apparently another three on the way), designed to tell one continuous story over about 9 hours of gameplay. It’s thematically and structurally very closely aligned to a certain TV show about some Big Damn Heroes and a very Serene spaceship. The games will run in three game sessions, one after the other. Six characters continue through the full three games (and presumably further…), four play two games, and 14 appear only once.

The year is 2525.

Until just over a hundred years ago, Humanity was confined to Earth's solar system. And then commercial warp-drive happened, and then expansion and terraforming. Then more expansion, people flooding away from Earth, paying for their new lives in indentured servitude to the new worlds. And the homeworld tried to recoup what it paid for all the expansion with taxes and rules and the curious fact that shipping things to Earth was cheaper than shipping it out.

The war between the Federation and the Outer Worlds League was probably inevitable. Probably the atrocities and inhumane POW camps on both sides weren’t. Probably the resentment on both sides was. Neither side had bio-engineered super-soldiers, or alien help, or much in the way of mecha suits, or secret wormholes, or AI’s to plot the possibilities or any technical advantage - just men and women who believed in the cause (War… War never changes). Marines, engineers, captains, sailors. But the Federation had better infrastructure, and eventually, they won. Several years later, and things are fairer now, in some ways, and more restricted in others. It’s a capital offence for a civilian ship to be armed, for example.

Some of them who fought still believe in their causes. Some, like the terrorists “The Freedom Alliance”, still kill for the cause. Others, like the crew of the Kestrel, just want to move on with their lives. Find a crew, find a job, keep flying. But nobody’s past will stay buried forever, and the universe is a surprisingly small place when a warpdrive lets you ignore the laws of physics while you dance across the immense darkness between the stars.

The Kestrel Triple Feature covers three interesting days in the life of the crew and passengers of the Kestrel, and the stations that they stop at. Ideally, the six crew of the Kestrel will be played by the same person for the entire day, and the characters who appear twice likewise played by the same person. The 14 “guest stars” have a huge variety of roles and inclinations, and there’s no problem playing a different guest-star in different episodes.

Each episode experiments with a different television story-telling mechanic - the first feels like a pilot episode, the second features flash-backs, and the third has a flash-forward.

While the first and third games are PG-rated at worst, the middle game comes with a content warning. It includes themes of sex-slavery and body-horror, though these themes directly impact only a some of the players.

While combat is allowed, it’s meant to be like a TV show - if you’re seen by a medic, then you’ll survive anything that isn’t plot relevant.

Cast list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y6gHGg3zsSRropmLtKTRq1YRvEUmYkh3c0pOXSaPepM/edit?usp=sharing Tell us which code-named character appeals to you, and what rounds you are available in.

Episode 1: The Linfarm Run: Saturday Morning: Six characters who play all three games, two more who are in episodes 1 & 2, and a third who is in episodes 1 and 3. Four guest-stars.

Episode 2: The Koenig Dead: Saturday Afternoon: Six crew (the characters who play all six games), plus two who were in the 1st but aren’t in the third, plus one who appears in episodes 2 & 3. Five guest stars.

Episode 3: The Omega Delivery: Saturday Evening: Six crew (the characters who play all six games), plus one who returns from Episode 1, plus one who returned from Episode 2. Six guest stars.

Episode 4: Coming soon …. Right Donna and Idiot?

 

Game Details
Session: 2
Number of Players: 11-12. 6 for all 3, 3 for 2, and then 14 for 1.
Restriction: PG for 1 & 3, M+ for 2
Genres: space, cowboys, cops, truckers, weird
Costume: Costuming: Space Truckers or Space Cowboys or Space Cops or Space Prisoners.